Rector, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rector, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Rector lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Rector — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rector — the short answer
Rector, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 872 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 872 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Rector's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rector's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rector
Each reading below is measured for Rector itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRector runs about 258 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRector sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Rector is in
Rector sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rector's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Rector
Every plant below cleared Rector's own zone 7b and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rector?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Rector
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rector. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CROCKETT OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BRANAM & CAMPBELL FLYING SERVIUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WHITE WAY EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BACK DRIVE CITY PARK ST. DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ELVIS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 19N07E23DCC1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- FLASH MARKET #171Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WATSON, JOHN D. & LORRAINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BOBBY'S BP (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SNAPPY MART #21Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RECTOR SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 19N07E23DCC2Nitrate · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rector's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Rector.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Rector
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rector
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rector
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rector, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rector — Nitrate (26 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Rector
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rector average
Your land is one point inside Rector
Everything above resolves to Rector as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 872 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Rector Average
Rector Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rector
- ●One soil character for all of Rector
- ●Frost dates read at Rector's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rector's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rector
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rector, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rector averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rector — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rector average
How we know this about Rector
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Rector’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Rector
When does frost risk typically end in Rector?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rector typically lands around Mar 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Rector?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rector typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rector?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rector sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 9, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rector?
The federal record around Rector shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rector?
From about Oct 24 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rector's scale — its 7b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rector's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Rector’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rector's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 872 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rector's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rector's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 23 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rector, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rector's boundary and the 872 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rector's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rector's 872 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rector's 872 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rector you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 872 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Rector-wide figureread your own land →